Indigo back to Bengal

[TopCat]

Long gone are the days when the farmers refused to sow a single seedling of indigo plant and faced oppression from the British rulers.

Farming indigo has now turned into a blessing, a way to change socio-economic status of hundreds of farmers in Rangpur.

Farmers of Rajendrapur of Sadar upazila are cultivating indigo and producing a dye from it, which they call 'True Bengal Natural Indigo Dye'.

Punni Rani, an indigo farmer from Kumarpara, said, "I am a divorcee. Now I am leading a happy life with my daughter and two sons. Two years ago we couldn't make sure even two meals a day." Punni sold indigo leaves worth Tk 3,000 two months ago.

"I earned Tk 10,000 by selling indigo leaves to the company. Besides, I made Tk 5,000 from selling indigo sticks," said Jagadish Chandra Barmon, a landless farmer of Rajendrapur. He also cultivates indigo on the roadsides of his village.

He added that since he was struggling for money, his daughter had to stop attending school after primary education. Those days are gone for him and she is back to school now.

Jagadish was referring to the Nijera Cottage and Village Industries Ltd (NCVI), a social enterprise of the underprivileged. It has helped change the socio-economic conditions of the underprivileged greatly.

"That is not all. We have started exporting indigo to Canada, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and India," said Sumanta Kumar Barmon, chairman of NCVI.

With the increase in use of natural dye world wide, the demand for indigo dye is swelling. The company exported indigo dye worth Tk 10 lakh in the past six months.

"Initially we weren't familiar with the export procedure. We have passed that stage and hopefully, the volume of export will double in a few months," added Sumanta.

Only 180 members started NCVI like a co-operative society. It has extended its working units and set up structures gradually.

"It has grown into a company with about 1,500 shareholders from five northern districts," said Salma Begum, managing director of NCVI adding, "All shareholders are also workers of the company."

Farmers other than the landless are also cultivating indigo on their land. According to them, indigo crop on 25 decimals of land yields around Tk 3,000 in just three months.

"Indigo stick is good fuel. We can make about Tk 4,000 more from selling the sticks," said Shawkat Hossain, a farmer of Rajendrapur.

CARE Bangladesh worked with the poor people of Rajendrapur under its Social Economic Transformation of the Ultra Poor (SETU) project. Shareholders of the company lauded the role of CARE for coming up with the idea of reviving indigo farming.

Team leader of SETU project Anwarul Haq said, "When we found that the villagers needed to be involved with long term income generating activities, we began to explore resources for them. We found indigo farming to be a good solution to this end."

Anwar praised the company shareholders who have been working hard to upgrade it gradually. CARE Bangladesh provides technical support and training for the company.

Some other cottage enterprises of the NCVI produce quality products, which are in high demand in the foreign countries.

The shareholders-cum-workers of the company manually sew elegant kantha (bedspread), which are dyed with indigo.

Momotaz Begum, a director of the company, told The Daily Star that they participated in handicraft trade fairs in India on four occasions.

"Last August we joined a weeklong trade fair at Dasker in the Indian city of Bangalore. We had sales of Rs. 4 lakh," she said.

At present the company has assets in cash and property worth Tk 2 crore.

"We'll go for large scale production soon," added the company director
<i>Indigo back to Bengal</i>

 

[TopCat]

There must be something in our soil to raise Indigo. Otherwise why British made hell out it???
They call it "True Bengal Indigo". Never saw any..

 

[Capt.Popeye]

There must be something in our soil to raise Indigo. Otherwise why British made hell out it???
They call it "True Bengal Indigo". Never saw any..

Yes there is something in the soil. Upto the 19th century, most indigo was produced in the West Indies and Central America. Then the farmers in that region shifted to other cash crops lke cane which was more profitable. So the British increased the acreage under indigo cultivation in the Gangetic plain region, from Bihar to Bengal. And if i am not mistaken, nearly created a monopoly on the crop.
Later with the growth of chemical dyes, indigo along-side other natural dye sources went into decline.
Of late there has been a great hue and cry about the chemical dye-stuff industry in the West w.r.t. to pollution an effluent issues. This uproar is greatest in Europe, where the dye industries of giants like BASF, Hoechst have had to close down. Therefore the resurgence of natural dye-stuffs like indigo.
This is good news for the farmers in Bangla Desh, especially marginal farmers. Though, IMO they should form co-operatives of their own to protect their marketing rights.
It also fits in well with the news of the new denim fabric plants. After all, indigo is what makes denim 'blue'.

 

[Urbanized Greyhound]

Good for Bengal .....if the Indigo planters earn sufficiently for four square meals a day it would be quite worthwhile .....though the Govt should also encourage setting up of factories and plants to encourage greater industrial applications of Indigo....raw materials can only get them so far.....more Indigo processing plants and more uses of Indigo not just dies, would go a long way in providing mass employment to a major part of the population.....in west bengal I believe a similar initiative is being taken with the Steel industry.....